I have a Pata hdd with Windows on it and, also, a new Sata drive with nothing on it. I notice that the Sata drive has been labelled 'backup' by the computer shop. I take it that this is just a label and nothing will stop me installing Kanotix 2005 on it?

When I looked at the partitioning section of the install to hdd bit, I didn't really understand it. The small Root-Partition panel, at the top, stays blank even when I go to Grub and select root-partition rather than MBR.

When I check 'set mountpoint of other partitions' the two hard drives are recognised as

1 /dev/hda1 (the Pata hdd) and
2 /dev/sda1 (the Sata hdd)

I don't get the 'other' partitions. I want to install Kanotix to the new Sata drive having first partitioned it off. The drive is 400gb and I imagine that 30gb will do Kano nicely. I'll be dual booting, of course.

First, we need to know the partition layout. Please open a shell, type

Code:

cat /etc/fstab
su
fdisk -l

and post the output here using the "code" tags.

_________________And I ain't got no worries 'cause I ain't in no hurry at all (Doobie Brothers, "Black Water").

betton

Titel:Verfasst am: 03.10.2007, 07:38 Uhr

Anmeldung: 03. Okt 2007
Beiträge: 9

Hello Ockham23,

I appreciate your quick reply. Just wish I wasn't a newbie and could do it justice!

I did what you said off the live cd. cat /etc/fstab, followed by Enter, got me a load of data; su - Enter, got me in as root; fdisk -1 got me a load more data.

I take it that using the "code" tags allows me to copy the stuff wholesale to my next post? If so, where are the tags and how do I use them?

If it's any good, I have a copy of Paragon Partition Manager which only works under Windows. I could type out its findings if necessary.

ockham23

Titel:Verfasst am: 03.10.2007, 07:52 Uhr

Anmeldung: 25. Mar 2005
Beiträge: 2120

Hm. Use your mouse to mark the output of the commands I gave you. Then copy&paste it here. The command is fdisk -l, "l" as in "lullaby". The "Code" tags are a feature of the forum software. Text marked with [code]...[/code] will be displayed without changes to the original formatting.

The cd has its own partition manager, gparted. Start it like this:
su
gparted

But be careful and back up your data before you make any changes to your hard drives.

_________________And I ain't got no worries 'cause I ain't in no hurry at all (Doobie Brothers, "Black Water").

betton

Titel:Verfasst am: 03.10.2007, 12:05 Uhr

Anmeldung: 03. Okt 2007
Beiträge: 9

Life gets interesting, don't it!

I can't copy and paste as I'm operating out of the live cd and can't work out how to activate my broadband. So I have to reboot to Windows to connect to this forum.

And the gparted command in the terminal as root results in 'command not found'

What I notice is that the sda1 (the new drive) doesn't have a star under the heading Boot.

I hope that somewhere in there is enough info for you to help.

I don't have anything on the first drive I need to keep so I think I should be able to just install Kanotix to the second drive if the partitioning panel can be worked out. I'll be guided by you on this.

ockham23

Titel:Verfasst am: 03.10.2007, 12:28 Uhr

Anmeldung: 25. Mar 2005
Beiträge: 2120

O.k., here we go:

1. From windows, copy the Kanotix-ISO to the root directory of drive C:\ and rename it to kanotix.iso. The path should look like this: C:\kanotix.iso
Next time you boot Kanotix add fromiso=kanotix.iso to the line of boot coomands at the bottom of the boot splash screen. This will speed things up.

2. Sorry, I messed up with gparted. The command to start it as root is "sux", not "su", and then "gparted". This should launch the partitioner.

3. The new SATA drive seems to contain only one very large partition which is formatted as NTFS. That's not going to work. You have to create at least one Linux partition (formatted as ext3) and preferably also a swap partition (formatted as linux-swap).

4. The asterisk "*" is called a boot flag. You need to have one on hda1 so windows can start. Kanotix doesn't need it, one boot flag on hda1 is enough.

_________________And I ain't got no worries 'cause I ain't in no hurry at all (Doobie Brothers, "Black Water").

Kano

Titel:Verfasst am: 03.10.2007, 12:32 Uhr

Anmeldung: 17. Dez 2003
Beiträge: 16543

you don't need to rename, just use

fromiso=KANOTIX*.iso

betton

Titel:Verfasst am: 03.10.2007, 19:20 Uhr

Anmeldung: 03. Okt 2007
Beiträge: 9

Well, I've been round the maypole and the mulberry bush with this one. I downloaded the iso from this site to the Windows desktop. I then tried to use the command line in Windows but I couldn't get out of 'Documents and Settings Administrator' and, when I tried to open the iso Kanotix file, Windows needed to know what program created it.

To cut a long story short, I discovered that Windows shows the new Sata disk as 'Z'. So I moved the iso file to that. However, though I found I had a new boot screen, I couldn't boot Kanotix from Sata. So I opened Partition Manager and found that iso file was on disc okay but the file system was given as NTFS. I further found that there was an option to format the disc with the Ext3 file system and so did that.

But I still couldn't and still can't boot from the Sata drive. When I try I get
'disk boot failure - insert system disk'. I suspect that I have to make the hdd bootable somehow but this isn't offered, I think, on the Partition Magic program - which is only a freebie from a magazine cover.

Unfortunately, I still can't get gparted going. Sux doesn't work. Any ideas about where to go from here? (I may be a while before I can get back to the site as I've a meeting shortly).

ockham23

Titel:Verfasst am: 03.10.2007, 21:16 Uhr

Anmeldung: 25. Mar 2005
Beiträge: 2120

The iso file itself is not bootable, you still need the Kanotix cd for that. fromiso tells the bootloader to get the remaining data from the hard drive, which is faster than the optical drive.

However, you cannot install Kanotix to a partition that holds the iso file. So put the iso file on your windows hard drive as I described earlier.

_________________And I ain't got no worries 'cause I ain't in no hurry at all (Doobie Brothers, "Black Water").

betton

Titel:Verfasst am: 03.10.2007, 22:14 Uhr

Anmeldung: 03. Okt 2007
Beiträge: 9

But that's what I can't figure out how to do. I have the iso file on Windows desktop: when I left click it I'm told that Windows needs to know what program created the iso file and gives me two choices:

Use the Web to find the creator - I'd have to buy isobuster or something.
Select a program from the list held in my computer - my existing files, nothing to do with Kanotix.

So I've tried opening the Windows command line and get:

C:\documents and settings administrator>

If I just type in C:\ and Enter, it just reverts to the above.

I'm still lost I'm sorry to say.

betton

Titel:Verfasst am: 03.10.2007, 23:33 Uhr

Anmeldung: 03. Okt 2007
Beiträge: 9

Hello ockham23,

Bad news and good news! I found another problem after the last posting. The Kanotix live cd wouldn't boot, no matter which option I chose. It just froze. So I tried another live distro or two and finally managed to get Mepis to boot up.

I then opened up the Mepis hdd installer and found that the partitioner merely said 'do you want Mepis on hda1 or sda1?' I selected the new Sata disc and it installed without a problem. Now, on booting up I just select the disc with the OS I want to use. Couldn't be simpler!

Look, I'm really sorry for the effort you've put in to try to get me going on Kanotix. I quite took to the distro. Something about it I liked. But it is obviously not for the real Linux newbie and I regret not being knowledgeable enough to follow through.